***Warning - tons of animated gifs are in this post - hopefully they load quickly for you!***Hey all,

First - thanks for clicking on this link. I wanted to post here about a game we have been working on called Boss 101 and one thing we put a lot of effort into is making the game fun to play and experience! Enough from me - you be the judge!

Boss 101 - the story about a boy, his jetpack and MILLIONS of randomly generated bosses. Join Max and S.T.E.V.E. as they adventure across the galaxy battling the baddies and bringing home the ice cream. Boss 101 is an arcade shooter and much more! We have procedurally generated levels, bosses and gameplay. On top of that we're bringing you as much humor and entertainment as possible while you play.

So yep, it's a shooter at it's core and at the risk of using "marketing-speak" we like to think it's a little more than that since it's got a story driving it forward. That's right, we said it. It's not JUST blasting robo baddies and rolling onto the next level. There is real human drama here folks. For one, did you know this whole adventure is triggered when your brother makes a simple (for him) birthday request?

First off though - let's check out the work on the Command Center main room - YOUR main room in the game! This is your first stop in the game and where you hang out with Max and Steve.

Some screenshots which explain the kinds of bosses you will be fighting (and what you might fight them with)!

Some Croco-spider Boss getting wasted!

These were all made in the MAGICAL Make A Boss Creator that YOU CONTROL. The thing here is you are in charge not only of outfitting yourself but you get to roll YOUR OWN BOSS! That's right, each level and each boss is basically designed by you with the magical MAKE-A-BOSS generator (see image):

From that machine you end up with this kind of stuff:

Say you were to roll a COMPLETE set for the kitty boss he would look like this!

And when you need some fashion help and stylish upgrades we have HATS!!

Here's just ONE of the SWEET hats you can purchase and bring into battle! Calibretto from Battlechasers!

Check out a FEW of the sweet boomsticks available to you during the game. You can upgrade fire power and craft special weapons with rare materials.

You might end up in a warp tunnel blasting samurai swords!

Some backstory on Boss 101

About a year ago I started work on a Flash game called Boss 101. I finished it and you can play it on Newgrounds here:

Recently work started on a sequel of sorts with the intent of adding a bunch of fan requests and generally upgrading the overall game. A few things on the sequel list:

Graphics upgrade - bosses, environments

More of that high-larious dialog from S.T.E.V.E. and Max

More bosses with more types of weapons

More game modes including an endless boss mode

More weapons (original had about 5 basic weapons, the sequel has around 40 planned)

More types of upgrades

More hats! (these were items you could buy to get powers and abilities)

So yeah, it's a bit of work but I have reached out and found some ace friends to help me out on the programming and art front. It's early still but I wanted to put up some dev blog work to document the happenings.

OK - on with some art...

Here is a before and after on a Boss

This is the first boss from Boss 101 - his idle had basically no animation

and here is the same boss in the sequel

A new super weapon

More guns...

More to come and thanks for reading! If you want to see more you can check out the links at the bottom for the main site and the IndieBD page!

Welcome back to another session of Boss 101 with STEVE and Max. Game progress continues and some recent adds are making the game seem that much more spiffy! Specifically - weather and the dialog system! We recently implemented a fairly robust system for putting in weather and we're just scratching the surface of its potential. What you are seeing is the first stabs at making some awesome effects for the game AND DON'T THINK we're aren't talking about making weather PART OF THE GAMEPLAY TOO!

As for dialog; we felt is was really important to have a lot of moments were the bosses as well as STEVE and Max had a chance to comment and talk with each other. I mean, you just don't see enough of that in our opinion and some of the funniest moments we can think of are when two characters have what you might call a 'heart to heart' or a 'player to boss' moment.

How does a boss die!

In an effort to give you more feedback and a better experience we are giving the Bosses a say in the happenings of Boss 101. They talk smack, taunt, maybe offer advice and HOWL IN PAIN! Check out the screenie of a boss dying rather unceremoniously.

Weather!

Also - we wouldn't want you to think it's ALL clear skies while you beat on bosses! We have weather... on Earth AND BEYOND!

And maybe some rain too....

Finally - let's leave you with a message from STEVE, Max and the bosses

Wow, I love the graphics. I love how purposely chaotic the gameplay looks with the rain/snow particles, explosions and bullets moving over the screen at the same time. energetic might be a better word.

Good luck with the development. You will have a lot of work balancing the bosses and levels. But you know that

Is there a specific strategy/risk reward mechanic/interesting choices that I will want to use in the boss generator or is it pretty much random? Can you beat the game or is it more like an endless highscore hunt?

Wow, I love the graphics. I love how purposely chaotic the gameplay looks with the rain/snow particles, explosions and bullets moving over the screen at the same time. energetic might be a better word.

Good luck with the development. You will have a lot of work balancing the bosses and levels. But you know that

HA! Thanks so much! We are aiming for a fun level of chaos. You're right about the balancing and thankfully we have some tricks up our sleeve that we learned from the web version of Boss 101. Regardless - it's all about making sure the game feels right as you blast baddies.

Is there a specific strategy/risk reward mechanic/interesting choices that I will want to use in the boss generator or is it pretty much random? Can you beat the game or is it more like an endless highscore hunt?

Cheers

Hello and great question.

Yep, there will mos definitely be a strategy to choosing the bosses you want to fight as well as your weapons loadout. Certain weapons will do better against various bosses. There are also game modes based around the concepts of fight, chase and protect. Fights being a pretty straightforward battles. Chases being you running bosses down and protect being missions were you have to defend an objective from boss attacks. These alone will have you switching up your choices to make sure you are prepared.

Beyond that we are working to make the various upgrades (hats, guns, powerups which you purchase) all have some sort of significance in the game and have some reason for being picked. That doesn't mean we won't have a few hats in there just for fun and dress up.

Thanks again for checking out the thread and it means a lot to know people are liking what they are seeing. We're always around to answer questions and give back to the community! You helped us so we are here to help you!!

Each week we bring you the latest news on Boss 101. Check out the progress with STEVE and Max as your hosts. Sure, we step in when they get out of hand - which is pretty much every single time.

How do we go about finding all those wonderful bosses we fight? Well, we have this SWEET map room the boys go to plot their adventure! Check it out – better yet – let them tell you about it!

That’s right folks – you get the WHOLE picture with the Boss 101 Command Center and GUESS WHAT?!!? it’s all yours from the get go. You’re the superstar! Well, we do have a few upgrades you will want to get before you go knocking on Boss 101’s door!

Boss 101 Dev Blogasaurous and YOU!

OK – you may already know all about the fabulous Boss 101 Make-A-Boss where you generate all the NEW bosses you fight each round but maybe we haven’t told you yet about some of the OVER-ARCHING ideas we use to guide us whilst we whittle away making magic. To that end – let’s talk about some of the basic principles which go into EACH FRAME of animation and EACH LINE of code in boss 101. We talk a lot about fun but what does that mean for YOU exactly. Here is an example:

Humor – you probably guessed this one already but it’s a biggie. We want to introduce you to STEVE and Max and we do a lot of that with their interactions with Bosses and each other. Our MASTER ENGINEER has devised a new and much improved dialog system that allows all sorts of HIGH-larious interactions with YOU, with bosses with STEVE and Max and even ROB. Bosses can have last gasps as they die, STEVE and Max now comment on the bosses as they are being made, we have a new dialog balloon system for in round and Command Center interactions. ALL THIS is designed to give you a direct link to the humor – both real and imagined inside the game!

Variety – You mentioned you wanted as much variety as possible within the bosses. You wanted MORE weapons, more weapon variety and more types of attacks. YOU GOT IT! There are nearly twice as many boss bodies in this game and each one has its own brand of attacking, defending and general AI pattern. In addition – there are MORE boss parts now too! In Boss 101’s web game there were three boss parts with practically no animation – Now we have FIVE major boss parts with hundreds of frames of animation on nearly every boss. Why?!?!?! To give the boss character and a bigger sense of personality!

Collection and Collectables – related to the above we wanted to reward the long term player with stuff to find and REASONS to find it. Hats are the basic collectable and they will be found after completing sets of tasks from the Command Center. You might also find a hat during a round, you may win one from an arcade game in the Command Center! The reason and POINT of the collectables is to give you something for your time. They are needed but they are there for the player who dives in and looks everywhere and experiments with the game. Oh, and if you don’t want to do ALL the hard work then feel free to ask your friend who did. Maybe they will point you to some of the secret areas!

That’s the just the TIP of the BOSS-berg! Stay tuned over the coming weeks as we show you more of what is IN the game!

Also - stop by our sweet new subReddit for updates and things YOU MIGHT FIND INTERESTING IN GAME DEVELOPMENT!

Hey all back again with our weekly dev blog update! Check out the latest magic from the labs at the Donley Time Foundation. We're still working on the Time Machine but that can take as long as we NEED, right!?!?!? HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!

In the meanwhile we are putting the A-Team on Boss 101 and making sure YOU will have fun playing it and EVEN LOOKING AT IT!

Join S.T.E.V.E. and Max as they fight their way across the galaxy in search of Bosses and adventure. Every week we bring you the LATEST news for your enjoyment! We have a few hot tickets for your Saturday viewing. It's Kitty Kitty Bang Bang and Boss 101 TOGETHER AGAIN!

First up we have the FINAL boss of the game visiting Steve and Max in their home Command Center. What's he doing there? Read on!

Next up is the moment of truth! Kitty Kitty Bang Bang joins the gang! You thought Kitty Kitty Bang Bang was a long forgotten dream! No it's not!

We bring you the latest announcement of the merging of the Boss 101 universe and Kitty Kitty’s universe! Check out the SWEET LID you can now purchase in Boss 101.Yes! Your very own Kitty Kitty Bang Bang hat in Boss 101!

Check it!

Hope you enjoyed this look inside the studio with STEVE and Max! Comments and questions are welcome and hugs are FREE!